Saturday, November 03, 2007

Writers Strike Update

Strike is called for Monday at 12:01 AM; federal mediator steps in a last-minute attempt to avert the strike; showrunners like Marc Cherry, Shonda Rhimes, Greg Berlanti and others express their support for the writers; and the strike fallout begins as Jay Leno, Conan O'Brian, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and "Saturday Night Live" are all going into repeats effective Monday.

The WGA West board and WGA East Council voted unanimously Friday afternoon to accept negotiators' recommendation and stage a writers strike starting at 12:01 a.m. PT Monday.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service has called a last-ditch meeting at 10:00 a.m. PT on Sunday to try to reach an agreement which would forestall the walkout.

Showrunners of TV's top shows have all signed the message you can see below expressing their full support for the fellow writers.

Although showrunners are often called producers, the powerful rival hiding behind the flashy name "The Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers" that the writers are battling are the production studios and TV networks represented by Hollywood moguls and CEOs.

Finally, the aforementioned late night comedy programs are going dark effective Monday. Programs like "The View" or "Regis and Kelly" will continue as usual.